Continued from Part 3...
Sunday -- Kulture Forum - Gemaldegalerie. Spent a beautiful day looking at beautiful, old fine art...circa 1400's, 1500's. (I think this entire Culture Forum area was bombed during WWII!)
After a day of art intoxication, I walked over to the Sony Center. This is an architecturally, interesting, open-air, very modern structure. Construction engineers would have a great appreciation of what went into designing and creating the glass or acrylic clear tent-like top. The locals and tourists seems to love this area...a great place for an ice-cream cone, beer, or glass of wine. I was not that impressed with the restaurants -- it seemed touristy and maybe not the best offering of food.
Guess what? I found Marlene Dietrich's star on the street outside the Sony Center...don't know the name of the street.
Monday - May 14 - Sachsenhausen Memorial. This was a very somber day at Sachsenhausen. I can't say more than that. As I reflect, I wish I had allocated more time for the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Topography of Terror, which offers English tours on Sundays. Sachsenhausen is very large and expansive and barren. If you do go and if you have your own earbuds, ask for the audio guide that you can plug into. They have them, but are reluctant to give them out...I don't understand why.
Tuesday -- KaDeWe -- Who doesn't like Kaufhaus des Westens. This is where I saw the menu item of "spargelzeit" (7th floor food court). I could not quite make out the menu handwriting although I knew that zeit meant time. Google Translate did not help any. This is when I found out it was "asparagus time" in Berlin. KaDeWe had a huge artistic display of white asparagus. I loved this store. I took videos of meat/sausage/wurst department! (6th Floor). I had hoped to walk on the famous Kurfurstendamm Strasse, but the day got rained out.
Wednesday -- Off to Dresden from the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (used Deutsche Bahn). My afternoon train was delayed by two hours, and so I had to have my ticket re-issued.
Thursday and Friday - Dresden. All I can say is that I had magnificent days in Dresden. I definitely could have stayed a few more days.
First thing Thursday was the Historic Green Vault. I believe photographing is prohibited here.
Next was the New Green Vault. This was just magnificent!!! I didn't just take photos; I took videos of the collections. I have never seen so many gem-studded clocks, coffee/tea sets, etc. There was one coffee service which I tried to estimate in my mind whether it would cost ten million or fifty million dollars to recreate it today. I just don't have a clue. It was stupendous!
The old architecture in this city is exquisite. Later in the day, I walked over to the Zwinger, which houses the Old Masters Gallery. (Rubens, Rembrandt, Albrecht Durer, Hans Holbein). After this, I saw another structure which was magnificent. I believe it is called the Church of the Court. I believe, but not sure, that the outside still bears the scars of the war. This church was just closing, but I was lucky enough to get a ten minute, quick look inside with photos.
Friday, May 18 - Frauenkirche -- Had a beautiful visit to this church. On a humorous note, there was a angel outside the church. Yes, I did say an angel...white cottonballs/feather puffs on his hair, white sack garb, and a fluffy white halo to boot! (I snapped a picture of him from the back as I was entering the church.) This church with its beautiful golden altar are definitely worth seeing and/or making a donation to. I believe it was bombed during the war and was recently renovated.
To be continued...